Make This Holiday Season Special, Start Some New Traditions!

Are you a traditional sort of person? Even though your family has a number of annual holiday traditions, do you wish you could add one or two more to your repertoire? Keep reading; the perfect tradition for your family may be in this list. I will concentrate on Christmas, but if it is another holiday you celebrate in December or the end of the year, by all means choose the ideas that will work for you.

First of all, it is never too early to think about holiday planning. For me it generally begins just as soon as the final number of the Labor Day Telethon donation board rolls over. I don't know what the magic is for me about Labor Day, but it's a very special time and I absolutely love the holiday season.

Shopping Concerns

Perhaps it can't really be called a tradition, but that's exactly what it is for me. I have, in the past, been one of those people running through the mall a day or two before Christmas and the stress simply wasn't worth it. I set a new tradition for myself to be totally finished with the shopping by Thanksgiving and so far it has been working well.

If shopping is one of your favorite activities of the holiday season, then certainly keep it for later. The idea for me is that if I'm not worried about fighting store crowds or worried about things ordered online arriving in time and in good shape in December, it's a definite plus for me.

Keep It Private?

One of the first things to consider is whether you want to keep your traditions within your immediate family or if you would like to expand some of them and invite other family members or friends to join. Many traditions are better with a group and some are nice just for your own nuclear family. I will include options for these ideas to celebrate with a family but also how to expand on them to include others.

1. Decorating the Christmas Tree & House

Nuclear Family Celebration: It is always fun to decorate the Christmas tree on the same day each year. Many people enjoy doing it the weekend after Thanksgiving and some use Thanksgiving evening as the time to decorate the tree and house.

Think of a new tradition to add to this special time. A few ideas include: play holiday music while decorating, have eggnog after the job is done, make a family videotape of family members saying what they would like for gifts, or call out for pizza or Chinese food after the decorating is finished.

Extended Family & Friends Celebration: To expand this idea to incorporate other family members and friends, consider having a decorating party. Give a small gift of a tree ornament to anyone helping you to decorate and serve a special meal for your helpers. An alternate idea is to have everyone bring a new tree decoration for you, but also have one ready to give back to them. Offer to do the same for their decorating day and it may turn into an annual tradition.

2. Plan a Movie Day

Nuclear Family Celebration: Gather everyone together on a Sunday afternoon in December and watch a few of the classic Christmas movies or even cartoons. My own favorites include Miracle on 34th Street and It's a Wonderful Life. Many newer holiday movies have been filmed over the last decade or so, also. Serve a favorite meal during an intermission or perhaps plan a finger food buffet, maybe even in the room where the movies are being shown.

Extended Family & Friends Celebration: This would basically be the same as the nuclear family version. Just be sure to have enough seating. When it comes to food, call out for pizza or have each of your guests bring a covered dish or a dessert for a dessert and coffee movie party. (If you choose the latter, be sure to have drinks for the kiddies, too).

3. Bring on the Cookies!

Nuclear Family Celebration: Make cookie baking into a family affair by letting everyone help to mix and especially decorate. It may be fun to let everyone in the nuclear family choose a new kind of holiday cookie to bake. Who knows, it may turn into a family favorite.

Extended Family & Friends Celebration: Instead of inviting everyone in to actually bake the cookies, consider a cookie exchange. Everyone would bake just one kind of cookie and then get together for a cookie exchange. A dozen at a time works well, but you can do two dozen for smaller groups. To put it simply, if you invite four people or families, everyone bakes five dozen of your favorite cookies. . . (don't forget that dozen or two for your own family!) and then exchanges a dozen with each person or family at your exchange party. You will have dozens of different cookie varieties and only had to bake one kind.

4. World Holiday Celebration Party

Nuclear Family Celebration: This is a great new tradition to start. I have done it both privately and with a group of people. Simply choose a country in the world that celebrates Christmas and research it. If you can find some of their music at the library, great! The main feature will be the meal you will make of traditional foods from the country you chose.

If you have children, ask them to research how Christmas is celebrated in that country and tell the family at the celebration. You can expand this as far as you want to. This might include costumes or artwork / decorations that have something to do with the country chosen. Maybe you can find a short story from the region. There are no limitations to what your imagination may come up with.

Extended Family & Friends Celebration: This is the same kind of celebration only it becomes a lot more exciting because each family in attendance will be choosing a different country. They will tell how Christmas is celebrated there, what the local customs are, and bring a covered dish or two of the ethnic cuisine from their chosen country.

These were just a few of the countless ideas that can be turned into holiday traditions. Try one or two of them or come up with some of your own!